O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed;
who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof;
who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment;
who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power;
for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne,
and thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable:
but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable;
for thou art the most high Lord,
of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful,
and repentest of the evils of men.1
Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and
forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee:
and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners,
that they may be saved.
Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just,
hast not appointed repentance to the just,
as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
which have not sinned against thee;
but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner:
for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea.
My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied:
my transgressions are multiplied,
and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven
for the multitude of mine iniquities.
I am bowed down with many iron bands,
that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release:
for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee:
I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments:
I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences.
Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace.
I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities:
wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me,
and destroy me not with mine iniquities.
Be not angry with me for ever, by reserving evil for me;
neither condemn me to the lower parts of the earth.
For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent;
and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness:
for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy.
Therefore I will praise thee for ever all the days of my life:
for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee,
and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
“The Prayer of Manasseh,” written 200-100 B.C., as translated in the old King James Bible
1 Or “relenting at human misfortunes”
See more notes and a different translation of this ancient poem.
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, that he came up with the idea for the book while reading Andrew Klavan’s interesting and risk-taking novel, 
. He decided he needed to take some risks of his own in novel-writing, and so sat down to write a book different from his usual output. The result is nothing like Man and Wife, but it’s entertaining (and valuable, I think) in its own way.
